Jacksonville Landing boating ramp construction progressing

Construction on the Jacksonville Landing continues along the New River. The facilities will include three 15-foot wide launch ramps, with two floating ramps between them, parking spaces and bathroom facilities, according to Mark Hamlett of NC Wildlife Resources Commission. The boating ramp at Jacksonville Landing will ultimately replace the boating ramp currently in use, which is across the New River next to the USO on Tallman Street.

John Althouse/The Daily News

By Christopher Thomas - Christopher.Thomas@JDNews.com

Published: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 at 11:41 AM.

Fishers and boaters in the area may have a new option for their hobbies by Labor Day Weekend as construction on the Jacksonville Landing boat ramps reaches a new milestone.

Construction on the ramps themselves finished in late April. The rest of the site work, which will include 60 single vehicle parking spaces and 69 trailer spaces, is scheduled to be complete by the end of the summer, according to Deanna Young, capital project manager administrator for the City of Jacksonville.

The facilities will include the three 15-foot wide launch ramps, with two floating ramps between them, parking spaces and bathroom facilities, according to Mark Hamlett of N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

The boating ramp at Jacksonville Landing will ultimately replace the boating ramp currently in use, which is across the New River next to the USO on Tallman Street.

Those ramps will be replaced with a boardwalk.

Young said the new boating facilities are under construction to replace the decades old ramp that hasn’t grown with the county’s population or demand for outdoor activity.

“We realized the need is great for new space,” Young Said. “Wildlife received complaints about the lack of parking. Only 10 people can use the area at a time.”

Fishers and boaters in the area may have a new option for their hobbies by Labor Day Weekend as construction on the Jacksonville Landing boat ramps reaches a new milestone.

Construction on the ramps themselves finished in late April. The rest of the site work, which will include 60 single vehicle parking spaces and 69 trailer spaces, is scheduled to be complete by the end of the summer, according to Deanna Young, capital project manager administrator for the City of Jacksonville.

The facilities will include the three 15-foot wide launch ramps, with two floating ramps between them, parking spaces and bathroom facilities, according to Mark Hamlett of N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

The boating ramp at Jacksonville Landing will ultimately replace the boating ramp currently in use, which is across the New River next to the USO on Tallman Street.

Those ramps will be replaced with a boardwalk.

Young said the new boating facilities are under construction to replace the decades old ramp that hasn’t grown with the county’s population or demand for outdoor activity.

“We realized the need is great for new space,” Young Said. “Wildlife received complaints about the lack of parking. Only 10 people can use the area at a time.”

Much of the land, which was held by private property owners, was purchased by the city for $1.4 million. To contribute to the project, Onslow County gave $400,000, as well as other parcels of land near the New River that it owned, for the project over two years, according to city officials.

Woodruff said the project is a unique one as it brought county, city and state entities to the table to collaborate on one project.

“We knew we had to find a way to eliminate slum and blight from downtown Jacksonville,” Woodruff said. “It was a stroke of luck that the Commission on Wildlife was looking for a location for a boat ramp in the Jacksonville area.”

The Wildlife Resources Commission will build and finance the boating ramp’s site work, which costs an estimated $1.3 million. Woodruff said building the ramps took nearly 2 and a half years.

Hamlett said construction on the ramps was delayed in order to conform with state and federal environmental standards. The New River is part of a “Primary Nursing Area,” a body of water that provides an essential habitat for “commercially important fish and shellfish” in their development stages, according to a 2009 report by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and construction could not occur during the spring and summer months as fish spawn. The project’s overseers also had to obtain a water variance to ensure as little change as possible would come to the water as possible.

“We got the ramps done before the the moratorium (on construction) ended,” Hamlett said. “We had to make sure we minimizing disturbance to the area since we were installing a living shoreline.”

According to Hamlett, the rest of the site work on Jacksonville Landing will be offshore and will not impact local wildlife.

The city will be in charge of paying for the facility’s upkeep and maintenance and will also foot part of the bill for restroom near the boating ramp. According to Woodruff, N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission gives local agencies $90,000 for restrooms, but the city may spend extra on that part of the project. According to Young, construction on those facilities will begin in early May.

“N.C. Wildlife gives us the $90,000, but we want something nicer,” Woodruff said. “The restrooms usually constructed on those sites are like small mobile homes. The city felt a little something more was needed.”

Woodruff said the city also plans on spending between $300,000 to $400,000 on a 2,000-square-foot welcome center for the city, but Woodruff said a timeline for construction has not been set due to the city’s commitments to financing other capital projects, including paying off debts accumulated during construction of the the Public Safety Building on Marine Boulevard and the renovations completed at Jacksonville City Hall in 2007.

Hamlett said the ramp was paid fully through grants and fishing licenses, and Woodruff said the city’s financial contributions to the projects will be paid from the city’s capital reserve account.

No new money will be requested from taxpayers for the project, according to Woodruff.